Texas Teen Shot by DEA Agents Dies

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 11, 2003

The teenage daughter of a man charged with selling cocaine was mistakenly shot once in the back of the head by federal drug agents, authorities said.

Ashley Villarreal, 14, died Tuesday after she was taken off life support, family members said.

The girl was shot Sunday when Drug Enforcement Administration agents mistook her for her father, Joey Angel Villarreal, a three-time convicted drug offender. Joey Angel Villarreal turned himself in and was charged with cocaine trafficking Monday.

DEA investigators arrived Tuesday to review the shooting and San Antonio police also were investigating.

Authorities give this account of the shooting:

Plain clothes agents saw a man they thought was Joey Angel Villarreal come out of a house and get into the passenger side of a car.

A girl got into the driver's side and drove away without turning on the car's lights.

The agents followed and boxed the car in. But the driver refused to stop, first hitting one DEA vehicle head-on, then shifting into reverse and ramming another. The agents fired at least four times, striking the girl once in the head.

The passenger was Daniel Robles, not Ashley's father, and he disputed the officials' account.

Robles said he had waxed the car earlier in the day and Ashley Villarreal, a friend and housemate, had urged him to let her move the car to the back of the house before it rained.

He said she did not purposefully back up the car and that agents fired immediately after the crash and didn't identify themselves until later.

"The first shot was fired and Ashley didn't say a word," he said. "She didn't scream or anything and I knew she was hit with the first shot."

Law officers would not respond to Robles' version or to discuss details Tuesday, citing the pending investigation.